JERUSALEM (AFP) – Goldfish may have short memories but, according to an Israeli university study, they might be able to drive.
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found that a goldfish’s innate navigational abilities allowed it to steer a robotic vehicle towards a terrestrial target if given a food reward.
To conduct their unusual experiment, the team placed a fish tank on a set of motorised wheels.
More details on Thursday’s Borneo Bulletin
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The top United States (US) negotiator on the crisis between the West and Russia over Moscow’s military build-up on Ukraine’s border briefed NATO allies yesterday, after inconclusive talks with her Kremlin opposite number.
US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman flew to the alliance’s Brussels headquarters from Geneva, where on Monday she had held a meeting with Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
Some European officials have complained that Washington is taking the lead in talks with Moscow.
They fear being excluded from moves to resolve tensions on the Ukraine border and to head off confrontation.
But Sherman insisted that European allies are being kept in the loop, after meeting NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and ambassadors from the NATO member states.
“The United States is committed to working in lockstep with our allies and partners to urge de-escalation and respond to the security crisis caused by Russia,” she tweeted.
With Stoltenberg, Sherman “affirmed a unified NATO approach toward Russia, balancing deterrence and dialogue, and stressed our unwavering support for Ukraine”.
And, in a tweet addressed to Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova, she assured Kiev that the allies “will not make decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine”.
After more than seven hours of negotiations in Geneva on Monday, the Russian and US officials both offered to keep talking, though there was no sign of a breakthrough.
The high-stakes meeting came as fears simmered of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has demanded wide-ranging security concessions from Washington and its NATO allies, which in turn have threatened severe economic sanctions if there is any Russian attack.
SEOUL (CNA) – South Korea’s telecommunications regulator said yesterday that Apple had submitted plans to allow third-party payment systems on its app store, to comply with a law banning major app store operators from forcing software developers to use their payments systems.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) had requested Apple Inc and Alphabet’s Google to submit compliance plans after the bill was passed in August last year.
The law went into effect in September.
Google announced its plans to allow alternative payment systems in South Korea in November to comply with the amended Telecommunication Business Act, dubbed the “anti-Google law”.
“Apple has a great deal of respect for Korea’s laws and a strong history of collaboration with the country’s talented app developers… We look forward to working with the KCC and our developer community on a solution that benefits our Korean users,” Apple said in a statement.
The KCC said Apple plans to allow alternative payment systems for a lower service fee versus the current 30 per cent commissions.
Apple did not provide details, such as a timeline of when the change will take effect or commission fee rates, but it plans to discuss further details with the KCC, the regulator said.
GENEVA (AFP) – The United Nations (UN) said yesterday it needed USD5 billion in aid for Afghanistan in 2022 to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and offer the ravaged country a future after 40 years of suffering.
In its biggest-ever single-country appeal, the UN said USD4.4 billion was needed within Afghanistan, while a further USD623 million was required to support the millions of Afghans sheltering beyond its borders.
The UN said 22 million people inside Afghanistan and a further 5.7 million displaced Afghans in five neighbouring countries needed vital relief this year.
“A full-blown humanitarian catastrophe looms. My message is urgent: don’t shut the door on the people of Afghanistan,” said UN aid chief Martin Griffiths.
“Help us scale up and stave off wide-spread hunger, disease, malnutrition and ultimately death.”
Since the Taleban movement seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, the country has plunged into financial chaos, with inflation and unemployment surging.
Washington has frozen billions of dollars of the country’s assets, while aid supplies have been heavily disrupted.
Afghanistan also suffered its worst drought in decades in 2021. Without the aid package, “there won’t be a future”, Griffiths told reporters in Geneva. The Taleban authorities said the aid appeal for suffering Afghans was “very needed”.
“But at the same time I would like to say the need is for all this assistance approved in the past to be delivered during this harsh winter,” senior Taleban leader and the group’s designated UN representative Suhail Shahee, told AFP.
He said the inflow of funds would also help in the functioning of the now dilapidated banking system, adding that any cash coming into the country will help rein in the inflation.
“The banks are not working properly so there is also a need to control the inflation and that can be controlled when dollars … hard currency come to Afghanistan,” Shaheen said.
Griffiths said the appeal, if funded, would help aid agencies ramp up the delivery of food and agriculture support, health services, malnutrition treatment, emergency shelters, access to water and sanitation, protection and education.
An estimated 4.7 million people will suffer from acute malnutrition in 2022, including 1.1 million children with severe acute malnutrition.
HELSINKI (AFP) – Finnish telecoms giant Nokia performed better than expected last year and foresees further growth in 2022 as a supply chain crunch and inflation are set to ease, the network equipment maker said yesterday.
The announcement follows a string of quarterly earnings surprises for the network equipment maker, which last October managed to boost its third quarter profits despite a worldwide shortage of computer chips.
The group largely met expectations with EUR22.2 billion in net sales last year.
But it raised its 2021 operating margin guidance to between 12.4 per cent and 12.6 per cent, up from 10-12 per cent.
The boost was related to venture fund investments, a one-off software contract in the second quarter, “bad debt provision reversals and some other one-time benefits”, the company said in a statement.
Nokia now expects an operating margin ranging between 11 per cent and 13.5 per cent in 2022, citing “estimated continued improvements in the underlying business, supply constraints and cost inflation”.
Nokia Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark said last year that the company expects to see a gradual improvement in 2022, though it was not “100 per cent” guaranteed.
Lundmark has been credited with turning around the fortunes of the network giant, which has been flagging in the race with Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei in the 5G network equipment market.
After taking the helm in mid-2020, Lundmark implemented widespread job cuts, with savings funnelled into developing more competitive technology.
James Kon
An attempt to smuggle 30 cartons of alcohol in the Temburong District was busted by the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF).
The RBPF said following the detection of a suspicious vehicle near a boat landing area of Kampong Ujung around 3.30am yesterday, Bangar Police Station personnel were informed.
On noticing police presence, the suspects attempted to escape by driving towards Sultan Haji Omar ‘Ali Saifuddien Bridge.
The vehicle with two suspects, a 45-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman, were stopped and an inspection revealed suspicious packages. A packet of crystalised substance believed to be drugs, including drug paraphernalia were also found. The suspects were brought to the Bangar Police Station.
The case was handed over to the Royal Customs and Excise Department and Narcotics Control Bureau.
The RBPF said it will continue to curb criminal acts, especially contraband smuggling.
The public can share information by contacting the police hotline 993.
UPI – Officials at a Welsh zoo said a “mysterious creature” spotted swimming in the banded mongoose enclosure was retrieved by keepers and identified as a toy crocodile.
The Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo in Kilgetty, Wales, said in a Facebook post that a weekend visitor to the facility alerted staff to a “mysterious creature” in the banded mongoose exhibit.
“Was it a miniature Loch Ness Monster?” the Facebook post said. “A mysterious water lizard?”
Zookeepers were sent to capture the unidentified enclosure invader and “breathed a little sigh of relief” when they identified the animal as a toy crocodile that apparently had been dropped by a zoo visitor.
“It did give us all a laugh this grey Monday morning,” the post said.
VIET NAM NEWS/ANN – The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association has targetted a coffee export turnover of USD5-6 billion in 2030, doubling the export value at present.
To reach this figure, experts believe that the domestic coffee industry needs to increase the proportion of processed coffee products from less than 10 per cent at present to about 25 per cent or even more.
However, increasing the proportion of processed coffee products is a big challenge for the industry due to the level of technology, complex factory operation and awareness of farmers.
At present, Vietnam has 160 coffee roasting facilities, 11 coffee blending facilities and eight instant-coffee processing facilities. The number of instant-coffee processing facilities is small and most of them are operating below their designed capacity. On the other hand, Vietnam’s processed coffee brands still have no place in the world market, and branding takes a lot of money and effort.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Đo Thang Hai said that to gain the target of USD6 billion, Vietnam’s coffee industry needed to strengthen connection between production and trade, expand export markets and develop products associated with brand building, towards building a sustainable coffee value chain.
According to Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Lê Minh Hoan, if the coffee industry wants to have sustainable development, there must be linkages among provinces or economic regions to form a larger-scale production area and build a brand for Tây Nguyên coffee.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will continue to implement projects on sustainable development for the domestic coffee industry.
For the Central Highlands provinces, the ministry will set up logistics infrastructure for the coffee industry to create higher coffee value and more processed products.
James Kon
Two women and a man allegedly involved in immoral activities were detained by the Royal Brunei Police Force (RBPF) on Monday afternoon.
Personnel from the Anti-Vice and Gambling Suppression Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department raided two separate rented rooms in Kampong Beribi around 2.42pm and 2.45pm, where they found the suspects involved in sexual activities.
The female suspects, a 37-year-old local and a 47-year-old foreigner, are believed to have been offering sexual services to a 47-year-old male foreigner.
During the raid, several evidence were discovered in the rooms including a mobile phone, condoms and cash, believed to be used for the illicit activities.
The suspects were brought to undergo the COVID-19 swab tests. They will be investigated under Section 294A (the offence of offering sexual services) and Section 294B (the offence of paying for sexual service) Chapter 22 of the Penal Code.
The public is reminded that offering sexual services is an offence in the country. Those with information of such activity can report to the RBPF by calling 993 or by visiting the nearest police station.
GENESEO, ILLINOIS (AP) – An Illinois family has solved the mystery of what happened to their missing cat that likes to sit on horses and donkeys.
Ann Kandis said the cat, named Noodles, jumped into the trunk of her father’s car in November 2018 while he was at the family’s farm in Geneseo, the Quad-City Times reported.
Her father drove off, but stopped along the road when he heard a noise. He opened the trunk and the cat jumped out.
The family posted “lost cat” notices and searched along the road but couldn’t find Noodles.
Kandis had given up on finding Noodles until she stumbled across a Facebook message that a fellow horse lover posted around the time Noodles went missing. The post showed a cat sitting on a horse and asked whether anybody recognised the cat?
Kandis messaged the woman on Christmas Eve and she still had Noodles. When Kandis and her son went over to the woman’s house, Noodles ran up to them.
Kandis, who works as an emergency room physician for Genesis Medical Center, said finding Noodles brought her emotional relief during a stressful time.
She didn’t take Noodles home because she said he has a “good gig”, but added that she can still visit the cat.
